Thursday, February 06, 2014

Glitch, Yahtzee and Tinybook

If the Snowden affair has proven anything, it's that the Imperial government is spying on everyone, everywhere, does not intend to stop, and is not even the least bit sorry. Today, however, they might be - just a bit - after a recording of a phone call between Victoria Nuland (Assistant Secretary of State) and Washington's Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, was leaked to the public.

Kyiv Post coverage of the story, including the photo of Nuland giving out cookies to protesters (via AFP)

In the exchange (see video here, with Russian translation), Nuland and Pyatt discuss the "leaders" of the "opposition" movement. They indicate a preference for Arseniy Yatseniuk, the need to manage Vitaly Klitschko, and the problems Oleh Tiahnybok's stormtroopers are causing. Except they characteristically mangle the names, so Klitchko ends up called something like "Glitch," Yatseniuk is "Yahtzee" and Tiahnybok comes out as "Tinybook."

White House and State Department officials have tried to spin this as Russian villainy, but let it slip that Victoria Nuland had "apologized" for the remark made in the conversation - thus confirming the leaked recording was, in fact, authentic.

I was on RT again this evening, commenting on the situation. Honestly, if I were one of the Three Stooges of Ukraine's opposition (or is that opposition to Ukraine?), I would be furious at this sort of treatment from the Empire. Meanwhile, if the fishermen have any sort of trade union, it ought to demand an apology from the State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who tried to suggest Nuland had learned her salty language aboard a fishing boat.

If I may venture some predictions here: Psaki will be quietly reassigned to a broom closet somewhere, because someone needs to take the fall for this fiasco. Nuland won't be sacked, but her PR value will be greatly diminished for a while; no more handing out cookies in Maidan, for sure. The EU commissars may fume at the Americans' language, but they won't change their policies; Brussels needs Ukraine in order to fuel its welfare gulag, Americans need it to hurt Russia, and so long as those objectives overlap, they will stay united.

I think it's also unlikely the Three Stooges will sever their ties with the Empire. They know who butters their bread, and figure that being treated like a puppet is a small price to pay for access to wealth and power. Their choice - "all the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them" - has already been made, and they are unlikely to change their minds now.

Ordinary Ukrainians, however, may stop and wonder whether things are really the way the Stooges and their Imperial backers have been presenting them, and whether "freedom" and "democracy" mean anything in a world where Imperial officials "glue" and "midwife" Ukrainian politics, then call it will of the people.

Oh, and wouldn't it be a pinnacle of irony if the leaked conversation wasn't recorded by the Russians - as the Washington spin doctors insist - but rather by the NSA? Hoisted with their own petard, as it were. Something to think about.

I've been parsing reports all morning. Looks like the normally controlled chaos spilled over into the uncontrolled kind, and that some Empire-trained "activists" had a hand in it. Not surprisingly, "social justice" quickly turned to looting. And in an election year, no less.

Bosnian politics make the "Game of Thrones" look like "Sesame Street"...

I am afraid the radical left from the Bosniak side will try to provoke and escalate tensions and will lead the way for Nationalist and Islamist Bosniaks to follow their footsteps similar to what happened in Egypt, Lybia and Syria. They are already comparing it to the Arab spring.It seems to me the Bosniak radical left have an illusion of a partizan struggle against (Serb) nationalism similar to Tito's partizans, this is a very dangerous mindset!US congress has urged Kerry to speed up NATO expansion to incorporate Bosnia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and other Balkans states. The Serbian entity in Bosnia is an obstruction to NATO expansion in Bosnia AND Serbia. If they can get rid of RS, Serbia will follow.